


I Begin and End with You

by ThePlumPyre



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - K/DA (League of Legends), F/F, Gumiho Ahri, Human Evelynn, Magic, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-15 21:21:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17536496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePlumPyre/pseuds/ThePlumPyre
Summary: It’s me. It’s Ahri.You found me.





	I Begin and End with You

Ahri is dying in a ditch on the side of the road when Evelynn first meets her. As a young gumiho, Ahri is immature and naïve. For someone who can live ten thousand years, Ahri thinks it would be a shame to die at the relatively young age of one hundred and three. The headstrong little fox bit off a little bit more than she could chew, and now she finds herself clinging to the scraps of her life, stuck in her fox body.

 

“Poor thing,” Evelynn sighs, scooping what she believes is a fox into her arms. “I ought to put you out of your misery, but you must’ve been so pretty.”

 

And it’s true. Ahri’s bright golden eyes and sleek red fur are unparalleled in their beauty. Had she not been bleeding out, Ahri would be a stunning little creature to behold. Even as she is bleeding out, Ahri is still stunning, and Evelynn notices. The determined glint of Ahri’s half dead gaze draws Evelynn in and keeps her.

 

“You won’t give up, will you?” Evelynn whispers, moved by Ahri’s determination, her fire. “Fair. I’ll give you a fighting chance then.”

 

Evelynn takes Ahri home, confines her, cleans her, feeds her, and ensures that everything possible is done for the little creature. However, while Evelynn can give Ahri food, she doesn’t realize that the little fox is a gumiho who requires to _feed_ as well. Ahri is torn. Young, desperate, and hungry, Ahri syphons off life force from Evelynn little by little in order not to hurt her. However, this is like sipping the mist off a lake when one is dying of thirst. Ahri drives herself crazy with hunger and desperation, but she cannot escape Evelynn’s house without her magic, and she cannot regain her magic without a good feed.

 

“You aren’t gaining enough weight,” Evelynn coos, cradling Ahri to her chest.

 

It is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, that final snap, that awful break. The rich, warm smell of Evelynn’s life force fills Ahri’s nose, and Ahri can no longer resist. She drains Evelynn dry. As she lays dying, Evelynn’s final vision is of Ahri shifting from fox to gumiho, her face horrified and filled with remorse.

 

“Evelynn!” Ahri sobs, wrapping her arms around Evelynn’s prone, lifeless form. “I’m so sorry!”

 

Ahri gathers all her magic and pours it into Evelynn’s corpse; Ahri grasps Evelynn’s soul in her hands, tugging and tugging, desperately trying to tie it back to the world of the living. However, magic cannot raise the dead; by trying to violate that ancient law, by trying to go against nature itself, Ahri gets what she wants in the worst possible way.

 

For Evelynn, her soul, her very existence intertwines itself with Ahri’s. Ahri can feel Evelynn embed herself into the deepest reaches of Ahri’s soul. Evelynn will forevermore be human and forevermore begin and end with Ahri.

 

Ahri screams and collapses in shock when her magic finishes binding them.

 

“This is my mistake!” Ahri wails futilely, curling into a ball on the floor. “All Evelynn did was help me! Why does she have to pay for it? Punish me instead!”

 

It’s too late. Ahri knows; she can feel Evelynn in her soul, a steady pulse, a constant reminder.

 

The cure?

 

Well, that’s anyone’s guess.

 

~

 

Ahri is older; she likes to think that she is more mature, wiser. She has never again killed during a feeding. After Evelynn, Ahri seeks her out, does everything she can to find her again. Ahri wanders through towns with her ears and tail cloaked, forever on the lookout for Evelynn. Ahri wants to find her again, to break this curse and free her. Ahri is in town one day, wandering aimlessly around the market when someone bumps into her.

 

“Watch it!”

 

Ahri’s world stops spinning when she looks up and her eyes lock with a pair of familiar golden irises.

 

“Evelynn,” Ahri whispers under her breath.

 

“How do you know my name?” Evelynn demands, wary.

 

“Oh,” Ahri shakes herself out of her stupor. “I don’t. I was just thinking out loud. An old friend. That’s who. I was just thinking about her. It’s a lovely name; your parents have good taste.”

 

“If you have my name, I think I should have yours,” Evelynn proceeds cautiously. “It’s only fair.”

 

“My name is Ahri,” Ahri offers a hand for Evelynn to shake. “I’m pleased to meet you.”

 

Ahri enjoys her time with Evelynn; Evelynn who remembers nothing, but is so guarded, so cautious, as if she remembers everything. Each sliver of trust is earned, each smile something to be won. When Evelynn refers to Ahri as her friend for the first time, tears well up in Ahri’s eyes, a potent mix of grief, shame, and joy.

 

“I think– _hic_ , I think I know you,” Evelynn giggles, leaning against Ahri as they stagger out of a tavern. Evelynn is a little drunk, and Ahri thinks it’s the cutest thing she’s ever seen.

 

“I would hope so, Eve,” Ahri says with a smile. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

 

“No! Wait! Yes! But, I meant it different. I think I’ve met you before.”

 

Ahri’s blood ices.

 

“Whatever do you mean?”

 

“I mean,” Evelynn looks Ahri dead in the eye, her face so serious that Ahri almost forgets how drunk she is. “I feel like we’ve met before. Like, I was always meant to know you.”

 

Ahri cannot hold Evelynn’s gaze; she flinches and looks away.

 

“It’s silly, isn’t it?” Evelynn chuckles, jovial again.

 

“Never,” Ahri whispers, stomach in knots with guilt. Ahri has not broken the curse, hasn’t even made a dent in it, a scratch. Her little charms and magic cannot reverse her mistake, cannot free Evelynn.

 

“You and me,” Evelynn continues, unaware of Ahri’s emotional turmoil, “we were meant to be.”

 

“Oh Eve. You don’t want that,” Ahri sniffs, blinking rapidly in an attempt to keep her tears at bay. “If only you knew. If only you knew what I did to you.”

 

“You can do whatever you want to me,” Evelynn counter offers, pressing a sloppy drunk kiss to Ahri’s collarbone.

 

Ahri breaks then, ready to blurt out the truth to Evelynn, her hideous history of mistakes for which Evelynn paid the ultimate price. But Ahri is both saved and damned again when an assassin darts out of a nearby alley, knife flashing under the moonlight. Ahri had not been as careful as she should have been, sneaking into the forest in order to shift and live briefly according to her gumiho nature. Gumiho livers are such a rare and valuable medicine now a days.

 

A flash of metal, a scream, an explosion of fur and fangs, and then blood and silence.

 

The assassin is dead.

 

Ahri is alive.

 

Evelynn?

 

Well, she’ll be back. She doesn’t have much of a choice there.

 

~

 

It’s in a forest this time.

 

Ahri is wearing her tails and ears, out and proud in a way she can never be in the towns, in the cities. Sometimes, Ahri loves being a gumiho, both fox and woman. Ahri loves the earth under her paws, the wind in her fur. Other times she loathes it, loathes herself. The magic that courses through her very being is what has cursed her, cursed Evelynn. The same magic that now seems powerless to fix what it broke. So, Ahri segments herself, both distancing and holding close the fragments of her soul that are so very hard to reconcile with each other. What is fox? What is human? What is magic?

 

What is Ahri?

 

Ahri doesn’t know. Doesn’t care. All Ahri wants is Evelynn.

 

And Evelynn is what she gets.

 

This time, Evelynn is picking herbs, a wicker basket hanging off her arm. The basket is full of rosemary

 

“ _Rosemary for remembrance_ ,” Ahri thinks, and she could cry from the irony.

 

“Oh,” Evelynn gasps once she sees Ahri’s tail and ears. “Forgive me, I didn’t know this was your territory.”

 

“It’s not!” Ahri yelps, still reeling from shock. “Please don’t leave. Pick as much as you need!”

 

“Thank you,” Evelynn bows, still not quite convinced. Her parents had drilled into her head since she was a child that magic was not to be trusted; tricky little foxes, gumihos, were especially conniving and dangerous.

 

But looking at Ahri now, Evelynn feels drawn to her. Like her whole life was meant to lead her to this point, to this woman. For the first time in her life, Evelynn can feel her very bones settle, and her parents’ warnings are forgotten.

 

This is life is similar and different to the previous one. Evelynn is less guarded, less hostile, and she openly adores Ahri from their first meeting. It’s a nice change for Ahri, to be pursued so ardently.

 

“Mhmm, Eve,” Ahri moans, on her back with Evelynn on top of her. Evelynn grins, sinking her teeth into the silk soft skin of Ahri’s neck.

 

“I love you,” Evelynn whispers, looking deep into Ahri’s eyes. “I love you so much.”

 

Evelynn is so genuine and so vulnerable in this moment that is causes Ahri’s throat to swell shut from shame, her secret weighing her down. Ahri hasn’t been able to break the curse yet, doesn’t even have the faintest idea where to start.

 

“ _I killed you. I cursed you_ ,” Ahri wants to say, but she is unable to force the words out.

 

“I love you too,” Ahri says instead, pulling Evelynn into a tight hug.

 

Weeks later, Evelynn doesn’t show up at Ahri’s den at the usual time. Ahri never finds out what got her, but the sheer amount of blood on the trail is enough to confirm the worst.

 

~

 

Ahri wants nothing to do with Evelynn the next time they meet. Wants nothing to do with the agony, despair, and futility of it.

 

After last time, Ahri ran. She ran until the forest and mountains became plains and kept running after that. Ahri ran all the way to the ocean. Holing herself away from people and magic alike, Ahri spends her days gnawing on fish and despairing.

 

One evening, the waves are many metres high and the winds finding their way into every crack in Ahri’s cliffside den. Looking out to the rocky shore below, Ahri can see that a person has washed up onto the rocks. Jumping to action, Ahri scampers down her cliff. Reaching the poor cast away, Ahri knows who it is before she even turns them over.

 

“Evelynn,” Ahri screams, the spray off the ocean whipping into her face and hiding her tears.

 

Crying, Ahri drags Evelynn’s drenched, half dead form to her den. Stripping Evelynn of her wet clothes, Ahri wraps her in dry pelts and pushes her closer to the fire.

 

“Don’t die,” Ahri pleads. “Please don’t die. We haven’t even met yet.”

 

“ _You didn’t even want to meet_ ,” Ahri hisses to herself. “ _You ran. You coward_.”

 

“I won’t run ever again,” Ahri swears out loud. “Evelynn, wake up, and I promise I won’t run again! I will spend the rest of my life trying to fix this!”

 

Miraculously, Evelynn’s eyes flutter open.

 

“Evelynn!” Ahri gasps, cupping Evelynn’s face with her hands. “Stay with me.”

 

“Who are you?” Evelynn groans, unable to keep her own head up.

 

“Ahri. My name is Ahri,” Ahri says, rubbing circles on Evelynn’s cheeks to try and keep her in the present.

 

“You have beautiful eyes,” Evelynn murmurs, drifting off. “Beautiful eyes.”

 

Ahri loses Evelynn sometime in the dawn hours.

 

~

 

Evelynn is a little different every time they meet. Sometimes she is guarded. Sometimes she is even wilier than Ahri’s gumiho self. However, the core of Evelynn stays the same. She is always sharp, deeply intuitive, and fiercely protective of those she holds dear. With each version of Evelynn, Ahri can feel herself falling deeper and deeper in love.   

 

This time, they are married.

 

“How old are you, exactly?” Evelynn asks as Ahri washes the dinner dishes.

 

“I don’t know,” Ahri sighs, and it’s true. She is sure that she is at least one thousand years old now. But, beyond that, she doesn’t know. Ahri’s ears and tail swish irritably as she thinks. “I’m at least one thousand.”

 

“Wow. Which wife am I? Number thirty?” Evelynn jokes; there is no real bite to her words, only curiosity.

 

“You’re my first wife,” Ahri confesses, and it is the truth. They’ve been married so many times now.

 

“Hmm, I find that hard to believe,” Evelynn considers it for a second. “But, you would never lie to me.”

 

“I would never,” Ahri confirms.

 

“ _Liar_ ,” her brain hisses, reminding Ahri that she has never managed to tell Evelynn the whole truth of them.

 

“I... I,” Ahri stutters, trying to say something, anything. “I–I use to look for myself in the pieces of others. But, Eve, I always find myself in you.”

 

“I find myself in you too,” Evelynn admits.

 

It’s a soft death this time. In her sleep.

 

~

 

Ahri is dying. She is one hundred percent certain of this fact. Ahri forgets sometimes, that being a gumiho does not mean immortality. Trauma, drowning, and suffocation are still real threats. However, Ahri thinks death would be a relief now. Evelynn is with her; they are in a cave and the Ahri knows that the cave in is going to suffocate them before help comes.

 

“I love you,” Ahri kisses her wife one last time. “I’m so glad you chose me, choose me.”

 

“There was never a choice,” Evelynn whispers, smiling.

 

Ahri knows what Evelynn means, knows that it’s a compliment, not an accusation. But, the adrenaline of near death loosens her tongue after all these hundreds of years.

 

“I killed you,” Ahri confesses. “I cursed you. Evelynn, you never had a choice. You were bound to me since we first met. You are always bound to me.”

 

Evelynn doesn’t react, her face schooled into perfect neutrality.

 

“I’m so sorry!” Ahri cries now, taking big sobbing breaths. “I didn’t mean to! I’m so _so_ sorry, Evelynn! I love you! I’m sorry! I love you!”

 

Ahri’s sobbing is interrupted by Evelynn wrapping her arms around her.

 

“Shh,” Evelynn coos, rubbing circles on Ahri’s back. “It’s okay. Ahri, it’s okay.”

 

“No! It’s not!” Ahri wails. “I’m a monster!”

 

“You’re not,” Evelynn scolds. “I would ask you more questions. But I don’t think we have much air left, so I’ll say what is important.”

 

Ahri nods, listening.

 

“You made a mistake. You didn’t mean it. You’re sorry. I forgive you. I love you. I would have chosen you even if you hadn’t cursed me.”

 

And those are the words that Ahri has needed to hear this whole time. Evelynn’s forgiveness is a soothing balm, working its way over Ahri’s very soul; healing a lifetime of hurt. Ahri can feel the curse _finally_ drain out of her system; Evelynn can too from the looks of it.

 

Ahri is feeling light headed now, the lack of oxygen affecting her perception.

 

“I’ll find you next time,” Evelynn promises, the last words Ahri will hear. “I promise you.”

 

“I promise.”

 

~

 

Two little girls meet for the first time in a dance class. It’s an elite class; most of the children here have their hearts set on becoming KPop idols. It’s the first day, and everyone is nervous. When the instructors tells everyone to pair off and stretch, all the other children seem to immediately find a partner, leaving the two girls to each other.

 

“Want to be partners?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“My name is Evelynn. What’s yours?”

 

“My name is Ahri.”

 

~

 

_It’s me. It’s Ahri._

_You found me._

 

 

 


End file.
